4 Reasons Why You Should Watch Ghostbusters

I’m going to watch Ghostbusters tonight and I am crazy excited. Here’s why I can’t wait to see it in the theatre, and why I think you should shell out the money to watch it there too.

1. It will piss off the misogynists spewing their garbage all over the Internet

As you may have heard, the trailer for this year’s Ghostbusters reboot was the most downvoted video of all time. Even though every woman knows not to read the comments on any video containing a woman, I thought I’d take a look just to see what was rising to the top. I was treated to comments like these,

This, along with the general sentiment that “any reboots staring women couldn’t be good,” was the first strike that got me excited to watch the movie. Mostly, I was just feeling spiteful towards the internet trolls who teamed up with the goal of making this movie suffer.

2. It will piss off racists who are using their dislike for the movie to publicly air their racism

Leslie Jones has been in the news quite a bit more than her costars. Recently, it was because she called out designers for refusing to make dresses for women who aren’t sample size.

It's so funny how there are no designers wanting to help me with a premiere dress for movie. Hmmm that will change and I remember everything

While this insult is awful enough to begin with, much worse began to pour in after the movie was released. Jones attempted to expose many of these racists by retweeted some of the worst tweets, but eventually she was overwhelmed.

Since many of these commenters are hiding behind their screens, it’s hard to know how to fight this kind of hate. However, it couldn’t hurt to support Jones’ first big film and tweet a little #LoveForLeslieJ.

We’ve addressed the problem of representation (or lack of representation) over and over on this blog. However, the picture above may summarize this issue better than any words I could write. If you’ve ever watched a character who looked like you do something cool on the big screen (especially when you were a kid), then you will understand how important it is to provide roles to actors from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life.

4. It was actually a great movie

When I first started this post, I hadn’t actually seen the movie. Tonight I went to my first viewing (I say first, because I plan to go again soon).

Even if I set aside the reasons I listed above, I’m still glad I saw this movie. It was funny enough to keep me laughing out loud (although admittedly a few jokes fell flat). The characters were also relatable and the plot was interesting enough to keep me watching. If I’m completely honest, I probably enjoyed it even more than I did the originals.

Whatever the reason, whether to spite racists and misogynists, or to introduce cool new heroines to your little girl or even to just enjoy an entertaining blockbuster, Ghostbusters will deliver.

7 responses to “4 Reasons Why You Should Watch Ghostbusters ”

I really wanted to like this film — I really did to spite all of the sexist and racist haters who took to social media and spit their vitriol all over the place. It’s just not that great, to be honest. As a film, as a story — it didn’t keep me the least bit entertained. I just don’t think it comes even close to the brilliant screenplay, the quirky, loveable characters and the magical heart of the first film — if anything, this ‘reboot’ is more or less an attempt to be more like the Ghostbuster sequel in 1989. I felt the characters were more or less just cheap caricatures of the originals and way too many jokes fell flat — that was the first thing discussed after the film ended. I felt many of the secondary characters were severely underutilized and no real reason to be there, unlike the original where they had more presence and involved in more of the jokes. The cameo’s from the original stars were less than impressive and if anything, felt dull and only filling an obligation to the die hard fanboys. The ending felt rushed and quickly dissolved into a generic action sequence where everyone puts their specialty weapons to use — bit of a yawnfest. I laughed, but it was too far and too few between. I expected more — especially from Kristen Wiig, Melissa Mccarthy and Paul Fieg. It just fell flat. Here’s hoping for a stronger sequel.

If anything, I do love the fact that this film is going to be enjoyed by young girls and they have some new heroes to look up to. I was touched when I saw a photo of Wiig high fiving a young girl in a Ghostbusters uniform — that’s awesome.

Really? Kate McKinnon’s character made me laugh literally every time she was onscreen. I agree that there is an overall silliness to the film, for sure, but I feel like that was with the goal of being more kid friendly. I also liked the friendship plotline between Wigg and Mccarthy. Honestly, I can’t remember liking the original as much as everyone else seemed to, but this one I really enjoyed. Maybe we are just drawn to seeing different things in a movie?

Interesting. I can see your point of view and it could be that they were gearing towards a younger audience, hence the photo of Wiig high fiving the young girl. I can appreciate that and if it’s to simply entertain and influence a new generation, it will do just fine. I was just expecting better from it. The original will always be there, but it likely doesn’t resonate with younger audiences as you mentioned — damn kids!!. I have to say Leslie Jones was the strongest character in the movie — I felt McKinnon was too awkward, making the odd weird face and blurting out random lines — that type of performance belongs to Wiig, who I was hoping would be better. I love Wiig.